Yearly Archives: 2012

Games Day!

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I successfully made it out to Games Day!  I had an awesome time, because that’s what you do at Games Day.  Staff there is always super, but they seemed even nicer this year: I suspect that’s because they weren’t in Baltimore.

Golden Daemon

The primary motivator for me was, as I’ve said, the Golden Daemon.  My entries were:

The Battle Bunker folk were super-helpful in working with me on arrangements to enter these things and get them back to me, despite being at a wedding that afternoon.  (As it turns out, the wedding started late enough that, had I changed at Games Day, I could have easily stuck around for the whole shebang and then made it in time, but c’est la vie.)

I’d planned on entering the Fimir to Single Model and the Ratwyrm into Monster; I found out the Fimir had to be entered as a Monster, so I bumped the Ratwyrm down to the Open category.  On reflection, I should have put him in the conversion contest: I think it’d have done okay in that.  Also, I really should have powered through the Demigryphs to enter them: I think they’d have done well (I suppose there’s always next year).

It’s important to note that I could not win, because I had to leave early.  I have no illusions that, if I’d been able to stick around later I’d have done better, and I knew it going in.  My goal, as it has been since the first time I entered has been to put in as good a showing as possible (and hopefully make Final Cut).

The Ratwyrm failed to make First Cut.  The Flamers and the Fimir made First Cut, but went no further.  Although that makes this the worst showing I’ve had yet, I’m still pleased.  A few things made a cut of some sort, I got to watch people take pictures of my minis and say nice things about them.  My ego was sufficiently stroked.  More significantly, there was some seriously amazing stuff in the competition: you’re not allowed to feel back about losing out to some of this stuff.  I’ve got a photodump at the end of this post: you’ll see.

I have no clue how the competition actually turned out: I had to boogie while they were making the Final Cut decisions.  I really need to track that information down.

I think that, for next year, I’m actually going to try to compete.  So far, it’s been, “I think I’m going to put something in the Golden Daemon; what do I have that I think might do okay?” Next year?  I’m stepping it up.

Consumerism

Let’s face it: that’s basically 75% of why Games Day exists.  I hopped in the ForgeWorld line after submitting my entries, where I was successfully able to overspend.  Exuberance made it easy for the FW staff (who were freaking on it, man) to do things like talk me into buying a Marienburg Class Land Ship (“You want a Land Ship, too, don’t you?  …  Yes, you do.  … Here, I’ll just go get one for you.”).  

Aside from picking up a few assorted odds, ends, and show-only minis, my haul:

  • Wolf Rats (x2)
  • Warlord on Brood Horror
  • Manann’s Blades Command (x2)
  • Manann’s Blades (x2)
  • Theodore Bruckner
  • The Land Ship (:sigh:)
  • IA – Aeronautica (updated points costs = must buy)
  • Tamurkhan

Tamurkhan’s really the only purchase in there that I have buyer’s remorse about.  It’s gorgeous, but since I’m ultimately so likely to use so little of it (something like 5 pages?), it was a mistake.  I’ll probably resell it soonish.

Aeronautica’s recosting of the Barracuda down to 130 means now I can run it, which means now I should run it, which means now I should paint it, which means now I revisit my Tau.  :sigh:

Fantasy Flight Games had a stand, as usual.  I’d have loaded up on 40KRPG books, but they’re so much cheaper online.  Also, not buying them is considerably lighter than buying them.  I did pick up the two POD Death Angel expansions (Deathwing & Tyranid) I didn’t have, though.

Miscellanea

Did anyone else hear about this?  They announced it, apparently, the day before.  It’s Talisman… in Space.  They had two prototype copies of the game they were using for demos.  I didn’t have the chance to sit in on one, though.

I got to chat with both Chung of Wargamers Consortium and Les of AwesomePaintJob (mostly about how they’ve helped meake me not terrified of my airbrush.  Very, very cool dudes.

It was great to see the same dang set of faces that I’ve been seeing for years at Games Day.  Like, really, really great.

I don’t want to rumor-monger, but one of the staff suggested that it might be Games Day Dallas next year.  If that happens: I’ll definitely be there (and by “I’ll definitely be there,” I mean “we’ll definitely visit Mrs. Rushputin’s family in Dallas that weekend, so that I might go to Games Day as well”).

Anyway, I think that just about covers everything that isn’t photodump.  So, let’s get on with that.


The quality of these isn’t quite what I’d like: they were done with my phone’s camera.  Still, they’re not bad, and it’s not like GW won’t post much, much better photos of this stuff at some point.

Armies on Parade

On reflection… that’s kind of an ass-ton of pictures.  I’ll throw up the rest in a post tomorrow.

Games Day Chicago 2012

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I haven’t been to a Games Day since those jerks at Games Workshop moved from Baltimore to Memphis and took their incredibly fun and utterly exhausting excuse to drink beer at the Wharf Rat (which, let’s face it, might never have actually been called “The Wharf Rat”) with them.  This hasn’t ceased to bum the heck out of me.

Fortunately, in a bizarre twist of fate I couldn’t have predicted: a close friend of the patient and understanding Mrs. Rushputin is getting married, in Chicago, tomorrow, which means I’m going to be in Chicago just in time for Games Day!

Needless to say, I’m somewhere between Super- and Mega-excited on the Excitement Scale about this.  (Although I’m going to be in Chicago for the wedding, not Games Day, the bride-to-be and I don’t know each other very well, so I think I get a pass for being more excited about toy soldiers.)

I’ll be putting a few things in the Golden Daemon: we all know I don’t stand a chance of actually winning one, but I’ve got to seize the opportunity to enter the competition when it’s presented to me.  The Chicago Bunker staff is being incredibly helpful in this: I’ll be gone and at the wedding by the time the competition wraps up, so they’re going to mail my entries back to me.

Anyway, if you’re going to be there too, keep any eye out for this handsome hairy bastard, probably standing in line to overspend on ForgeWorld:

If you see me, be sure to say hi!  It’ll be interesting to go to something like this and not see the usual faces.

DC Geeks

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I’ve mentioned before that some of my friends are responsible for the DC Geeks site, dedicated to any and all goings-on in Our (well, my and theirs, but some of you are Otherplacians) Nation’s Capital that might be considered geeky.

As it happens, this toy soldier painting thing we’ve got going on: not mainstream. (Who knew?)

Since it’s something unfamiliar to them, they’ve asked me to write a bit on how to get started in the minis hobby.

I think I did a pretty decent job of remaining impartial re: the biggest minis games in the area. Malifaux’s not for me and, although I don’t talk about it much, I hate Warmachine/Hordes like only an embittered devotee who’s lost their faith can… but that doesn’t mean the hypothetical reader of the article won’t enjoy them.

I know Dust Warfare’s picked up some steam locally and didn’t get mentioned. Two reasons for that. 1) It’s just started picking up steam locally. We’ve had more than our fair share of flash-in-the-pan, game-of-the-months. I’m not saying that I won’t take it seriously until Bill starts a podcast about it… but if people are still actually playing it six months from now, we’ll talk. 2) I seriously wrote the thing, like, two months ago. I’m only so prescient.

Anyway, I’m curious about any thoughts folks might have about it.

Similarly, they interviewed me on their podcast. If you’d like to listen to me chat with some friends for an hour or so ostensibly about toy soldiers (but, frankly, mostly about GW stuff), tune in.

I’ve got a weird relationship with podcasts: I’ve got several friends who run their own (8-Bit Radio, the aforementioned DC Geeks Podcast, Gamer’s Lounge). There are some really good ones out there, that do valuable, worthwhile things (11th Company, Jennisodes, WTF with Marc Maron). And I can’t hardly listen to any of them.

I find interviews really, really interesting (the Marc Maron stuff is amazing, and I think what Pat does on the 11th Company is the easily the most worthwhile thing being done with 40K podcasting)… but that’s it. The conversational, bunch-of-people in a room format that most podcasts use just isn’t something that works for me. Definitely a matter of taste, mind you, and I know that I’m in the minority here, so whatevs. (It does make me feel mildly hypocritical to shill about being interviewed, conversationally, on a podcast, though; hence the digression.)

Anyway, that’s all the self-slash-cross-promotion I’ve got in me for today.

20120714 CGL RTT

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Have I seriously not posted about the tournament last weekend? Time to fix that!

Last weekend was a CGL RTT: one of our members was going in for hip replacement a couple of days later (I had mentioned that our club is generally a somewhat older crowd, right?), so the goal was to cram in a bunch of games before he had to be off his feet for several months.

It as a 2,800 point tournament, and folks could spend up to 25% of their points on Scrolls of Binding. While I didn’t do this (the only thing I could really do with that would be to run the Fimir, and I’ve found him to be a disappointment), several folks did: I saw some stuff from both Storm of Magic and Monstrous Arcanum on tables. I reallylike this in the context of a local RTT: it gives space for folks to play with goofy, neat stuff like that and really doesn’t seem to be all that unbalancing.

This was a week ago, so details will likely be a smidge fuzzy.

I waffled about whether or not to take Empire or Skaven: I’m playing the former, but the latter is fully painted. In the end, I decided to run the Skaven: a tournament’s a tournament after all. It was, I think, the right choice.

2,800 – Skaven RTT List

Lords
Warlord (General) – War-Litter, Shield
Grey Seer – Ruin, Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Endurance
Grey Seer – Plague, Foul Pendant

Heroes
Chieftain (BSB) – Shield, Armour of Destiny
Plague Priest – Flail, Plague Furnace
Warlock Engineer – Doomrocket

Core
Clanrats x32 – Full Command, Shields
– Warpfire Thrower
Skavenslaves – Champion, Musician, Shields
Stormvermin x27 – Full Command, Stormbanner
– Warpfire Thrower

Special
Plague Monks x26 – Full Command, Plague Banner
Gutter Runners x6 – Slings, Poison
Gutter Runners x6 – Slings, Poison

Rare
Hell Pit Abomination – Warpstone Spikes
Plagueclaw Catapult
Warp Lightning Cannon
Warp Lightning Cannon

So, nothing terribly unusual for me, save for the second Grey Seer, the Catapult, and the swapping of Mortars for Warpfire Throwers (and I’ve already talked about those).

Game 1

Minor Loss vs. Phil’s Tomb Kings

Phil, as it turns out, lives nearby: on the other side of Manassas (in NoVA terms, that’s effectively next door). Given that we had a great game, I probably should try to roll dice with him more often. (This is a theme for the day).

He was running a monster-heavy list (Tombzilla? Sphinxilla?), and with so many enormously big bastards and such high Toughness scores… I just couldn’t break through it all.

2,800 – Phil’s Tomb Kings

Lords
Khatep (General)

Heroes
Liche Priest – Lvl 2, Dispel Scroll

Core
Archers x22 – Standard
Chariots x3
Chariots x7 – Standard

Special
Tomb Guard x37 – Champion, Standard, Halberds
Warsphinx – Breath Weapon
Warsphinx
Warsphinx

Rare
Caset of Souls
Hierotitan

Neither of us play very quickly, so we wrapped at Turn 3. It’s tough to say where the game would have been had we pushed on through Turn 4.

The key turning point in the game was when my Hellpit Abomination had rolled into his Tomb Guard to the front and stuck around; one of his Warsphinxes moved forward and stood on their flank… exposing its flank to the Plague Monks. The Monks charged it and, if they’d been able to beat it in combat, they’d have rolled forward into the Tomb Guard, gotten two combats in with their Plague Banner, and put Khatep in base-to-base combat with the Plague Priest. If I’d won that combat, man, I’d have gotten a very solid win.

It wasn’t to be: I don’t care how many attacks, rerolling to hit and wound… if you’re not able to successfully cast Bless with Filth on ’em, you’re going to have some trouble getting through T8. In hindsight, I should have gone for the Irresistible Force on it; that’s how key it was. Instead of blowing through the Spinx, the Plague Monks did some damage… but then took flank and rear charges from the two units of Chariots.

Game 2

Massacre vs. Bill’s High Elves

2,800 – Bill’s High Elves

Lords
Teclis

Heroes
Noble (BSB) – Great Weapon, Armour of Destiny

Core
Archers x14 – Musician
Lothern Sea Guard x40 – Full Command, Shields, Banner of Eternal Flame

Special
Phoenix Guard x30 – Full Command, Warrior Bane, Banner of Sorcery
Swordmasters of Hoeth x25 – Full Command, Ironcurse Icon, Gleaming Pennant

Rare
Great Eagle
Great Eagle

Scrolls of Binding
Great Dragon

Second game was against the Man of the Hour… and I felt pretty bad about it.

I went first and, before he had the chance to do anything, I’d Gutter Runner’d his Eagles to bits and used both Warp-Lighting Cannons to pop his Dragon. It goes without saying that this was a big deal. IIRC, due to deployment, I was actually even able to kill something like half of his Swordmasters with Warpfire Throwers, as well.

The scenario was a variant of The Watchtower, and although Bill started in control of it, I was able to (on a number of occasions), Curse of the Horned Rat the Elves occupying it… eventually converting Teclis into a loathsome ratman.

Bills only real defense was to spam Final Transmutation, which was effective in killing a lot of models (but not units) and making me really nervous about my characters (though he only managed to tag my Warlord after several tries).

In the end, I tabled him… and even though nobody likes getting tabled, I’m reasonably certain I made the process as pleasant as possible.

Game 3

Minor Win vs. Cody’s Orc’s & Goblins

I don’t have a copy of Cody’s list to post… and I was a bit preoccupied through the game, so I can’t recreate his list. It was a fairly standard O&G list: deep units of Night Goblins with Fanatics, some Mangler Squigs, a bunch of Doom Divers and Bolt Throwers; he also ran three Snotling Pump Wagons and an Ettin from Monstrous Arcanum.

Before the game started, I started to feel bad. GPC has some serious air conditioning issues over by the mini gaming tables; they have for years, and it’s persisted even after they fixed their AC system. The main source of this problem isn’t a bunch of gamers: it’s that there’s a kitchen restauant on the other side of the wall on the far side of the tables… the wall I stood next to all day long.

At first, I thought it might have been something from lunch… but in hindsight, I’m quite convinced it was heat exhaution: vertigo, nausea, headache, and a mad dash to the bathroom. Mark, who’s both a gentleman and a scholar, ran out to K-Mart to game some Pepto for me. It was not cool.

I figured I’d worked through most everything, came out and threw down.

Despite feeling pretty terrible, and worrying through the whole game about whether or not I’d have to run back to the bathroom, I didhave a good game; I’m not sure if I’ve played Cody before, and that’s a shame. There was a lot of back-and-forth but, by the end of things, I pulled out a Minor Win. Had we pushed on a bit farther, I think I was positioned to widen that lead, but there weren’t any huge, drastic events. (Like I said, I was preoccupied.)

Conclusion

Overall, despite getting sick near the end (which also knocked me out for Sunday), I had a great time! I had three fun games against folks I don’t normally get to play against, and that’s always a good thing. It’s something I really need to make of point of doing more of: it’s a big group ’round these parts, but I end up just playing against the same handful of folks… I need to broaden my horizons.

Anyway, between the VPs from tabling Bill and points from Players’ Choice votes (thanks, folks!), I ended up coming in second place overall (woot!).

Here are some other pictures of some of the really great armies I didn’t get to play against:

Flames! Flames on the side of your face!

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Last Wednesday, I decided to bring Skaven to the RTT over the weekend.  I’d rather be playing my Empire, but fully painted at a tournament > not fully painted at a tournament.  I jiggered together a list of what I had that I could run painted and, out of fear of having trouble with Ogres, replaced my eternally-disappointing Poisoned Wind Mortars with Warpfire Throwers.

Of course, even though I’m pretty sure I have something like eight or nine (not kidding), I didn’t have any painted.  So that’s what I did late last week.

I only spent about two days painting them: Wednesday was prep/assembly/priming.  Thursday was painting Friday was staying up late, painting and wishing I were less interested in the Steam Sale.

Here are the results!

I used the Island of Blood models instead of one of the metal ones because plastic > metal and because I’ve found everything in that box paints up lickety-split.  I didn’t want two identical models, though, so I tweaked them a bit: I removed the smoke plume from one kit and left off the flaming rat from the other.  It doesn’t show in any of the pictures, but I drilled out the smoke stack and both nozzles.

In some ways, I’m pleased with them.  I like painting Skaven.  It feels like home.  They look alright, and really did well the next day.

In other ways, though, all I can do is look at the things I think I did wrong or ran out of time to do.

  • That stupid damn flaming rat.  Not only did it make it hard to paint the model, the flames look terrible.  I hate going back to models, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to go back and fix those ugly, horrible flames. Hate them!
  • I think I did the brass / steel items wrong on the flaming device.  Does anyone else struggle with that particular decision as much as I do?  The contrast is always really important, and here, I think I got it backwards.
  • Part of that’s because I wanted to do scorching on the nozzle.  If the nozzle had been steel, that’d be easy and it’d look really good.  Because it’s brass, I don’t think it’d look as good.  As the green flaming rat testifies: it’s better to not do than to do and have it look like ass.
  • Too late, it occurred to me that I should have painted the drudge rat lugging the tank like a Skavenslave instead of a Clanrat.  Damn, that would have worked really well.

On a related note, I had that Lundbye painting printed off on some tablet-sized cardstock so I could take some glam shots of Empire models I paint.

I think it works well: though I do need to hit it with some varnish to cut down on glare.

Finally, while photographing the Demigryph (again), do you know what I noticed?

THE SPIKE ON HIS HEAD BROKE OFF.

Seriously.  It’s such a huge damn issue with the Halberdiers, you just don’t even know.  I’m so utterly done with pokey shit breaking off of my toy soldiers.


(Did you see how I just brought it back to fire? Full circle, folks. I don’t half-ass it ’round these parts*.)

* Yes, I do.

A Demigryph, FINALLY!

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If you look at my Hobby Status log, things are grim.  Nothing since April.  Pathetic.

That’s not to say that I haven’t been doing anything at all: I just haven’t been sealing the deal.  Not finishing anything.

And, technically, I suppose I still haven’t (that Daemon Prince assembly doesn’t really count, does it?), since I haven’t touched this sucker’s rider… but he’s negligibly easy.  As in the game, the rider’s hardly the point. :)

Anyway, I’ve been jammed up on finishing this test model for the Demigryphs.  I’ve been trying to make sure I’m happy with the paint scheme before I commit to painting another three of these guys.  It had been my hope to enter these guys in the Golden Daemon later this month, but I’m not sure if I’ll have them done in time.  It’s possible, but not likely.

Anyway, since I’m doing something of a a maritime-themed army, I wanted to paint these guys like the were sea creatures.  So, instead of a lion, I went with a seal.  Instead of an eagle, I went for a seagull.

I’m not sure I was effective with the the seagull side of things, but at the same time, I think adding those dark patches to the head would muddy things.

These guys are elite members of the Sons of Manann, hence the turquiose and white armour.  (Mrs. Rushputin: “I thought your Empire guys were blue…”)

Fun fact: I’ve said before that I’m doing zenithal highlighting on this army (and I’ve also said that I probably slap enough paint on these models to defeat the point).  Well, it’s even more stupid and pointless to do on these guys: the point of zenithal highlighting is to make the top lighter than the bottom, but the coloration of seals is deliberately the opposite: they want to look lighter from beneath and darker from above.  So, that means more thin layers of paint all around.  Good times.
I don’t think I’m going to bother with the rider just yet: I’m crackin’ on getting the other three birds painted up and then I’ll knock out all of the riders.
(There’s also a teeny bit to clean up on this guy, but I won’t point out where.)
Since I was so excited to get varnish on this sucker, I went ahead and took a couple of glam shots of him, ’cause that’s how I do). :)

These backdrops remind me that I need to get a new one printed off for this army.  This painting of the Danish coast (which I imagine maps well to the Nordland coast) by Johan Thomas Lundbye is a big part of my inspiration for the army, so it’s what I’ll probably use.

Salzenmund Character Creation Notes

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Characters will be built per the character creation rules in WFRP, with the following differences/notes:

  • Humans only.
    • Shallaya’s Mercy may be chosen once.
    • Depending on your nationality (see below), you may choose a different nation for your Common Knowledge and a different language for your Speak Language. I just hope you plan to be able to communicate with the rest of the party,
  • Careers. Roll once on the table (none of this mollycoddling “two rolls and choose” nonsense*). I’m too lazy to rewrite the career table, so if you roll one of the following “special” careers:
    • Apprentice Wizard – Make a note of it, then reroll on the Career Table.
    • Etstalian Disestro – You may reroll. If you don’t, you’re stuck being Spanish, Italian or French.
    • Hedge Wizard – Make a note of it, then reroll on the Career Table.
    • Kislevite Kossar – You may reroll. If you don’t, you’re stuck being Polish.
    • Norse Berserker – You may reroll. If you don’t, you’re stuck being a Lapp or Swedish or something.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics – Roll twice on a Distinguishing Characteristic table. There are two
    • WFRP 2E – Distinguishing Marks table. These have no mechanical effects.
    • WFRP 1E – Distinguishing Characteristicstable. These have mechanical effects (some positive, some negative, most no effect).
  • At any point if you see something referring to d10g/s/p, replace it with d4g/s/p.

  • Languages & regions are different, but for the most part, the mapping is fairly transparent (and, where it isn’t, c’est la vie):

    WFRP Languaage
    Reikspeil German
    Breton French
    Halfling Dutch
    Estalian Spanish
    Eltharin English
    Kislevian Polish
    Khazalid Hungarian
    Norse Swedish
    Tilean Italian

  • 2d4 starting gold instead of 2d10, which I currently do not think you will be able to spend before the game begins.
  • Remember: all characters start with a Hand Weapon (that’s a specific weapon, btw: “Hand Weapon,” not a class of weapons).
  • You may, at this point, sell any of the trappings your starting career has provided you.
  • Roll 1d6. 1-4: start with a Pike (as Spear), 5-6: start with a Musket. These may not be sold.
  • I’ve taken a stab at creating some nationality & religion charts. You may choose your nationality (unless you’ve rolled a funky career and have chosen to not reroll it) and religion, or roll on the tables below**; whatever you prefer. (Just remember the prohibition against choices/behavior catastrophically prohibitive to party unity.)

    Nationality/Faction Chart
    Roll Nationality Roll Nationality
    Bourbon / Protestant Habsbug / Catholic
    01-06 Danish 101 Croatian
    07-19 Dutch 102-141 German
    20-39 French 142-144 Hungarian
    40-67 German 144-154 Italian
    68-70 Hungarian 155-156 Netherlander
    71-74 Norwegian 157-200 Spanish
    75-76 Scottish
    77-99 Swedish
    100 Transylvanian


    Religion Chart
    Roll Religion
    01-06 Lutheran
    07-09 Calvinist
    10 Zwinglian
    11-18 Roman Catholic
    19 Greek Catholic
    20 Mohammedan***

  • Note that you will be accompanied by d4 fellow deserters each. These will be fellow squadmates / acquiantences / replacements. These will function as hirelings. (TBD: How they’re to be generated.)

* Really, I forgot that WFRP 2E lets you roll twice and pick when folks did character creation last week. So, we’re stuck with it; only fair, right?
** Not making any claims as to the accuracy or comprehensiveness of these charts. Remember that bit about expect ahistoricity? These are broad strokes done quickly.
*** Is “Mohemmedan” offensive? I sure hope not; if it is, let me know and I’ll correct it to the more modern “Islamic” or “Muslim” or something.

The Salzenmund Apophaſiſ

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I never got around to posting an overview about the game I’m about to run. I probably should fix that, since I’m about to start posting particulars about it.  Here’s the write-up:

The game will take place during the Thirty Year’s War.  All of the characters will be deserters, ditching the conflict in the aftermath of and in response to the horrors of the Sack of Magdeburg (or a similar, ahistorical event). Whatever’s happening here it sure ain’t the will of God, and it’s sure not something the PCs want any further part of. The world is going to Hell and, while they’ve bad things, they’re hardly alone. More significantly, they’re done. They’re getting out before their souls are stained any further. It’s time to find somewhere you can be safe: Switzerland.

The setting will lack fantastic elements. So, no elves, dwarves or halflings. No wizards. Initiates are valid choices, however, because they don’t actually start with the Divine Lore talent (so no need to worry about magic prayers at character creation.). It will be real-world historical run by a non-student of history. Expect ahistoricity and fudging, but no dragons or wyverns.  This might change as the game progresses, mind you, but we’re going to begin by selling things straight.

As I mentioned above, everyone’s a human. My default assumption is that they would be Catholic Germans, but I don’t really care about religious and ethnic choices: Protestant, Catholic, German, Spanish, Swedish – I don’t care so long as different players’ choices don’t become catastrophically prohibitive to party unity. In other words, if one of the PCs is a former Bourbon supporter and another former Hapsburg supporter: that’s cool, so long as things are much closer to “Boy, this sucks, let’s help each other get out of this shit situation” than “BURN HERETIC BURN!”

We’re using the WFRP 2E system. There will be some slight changes to char gen. Additionally, I expect to tweak rules a fair amount here and there as the game progresses.

I’m eyeballs deep in OSR blogs at the moment, so expect that mentality to inform the direction of the game: that is to say: exploration, resource management, and flexibility.

We’ll try extremely hard to stick to a every-other-Friday schedule.

First Stab at some 6E Lists

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Frustratingly, I haven’t had the chance to play 40K yet.  It doesn’t help that I’m still getting over this cold or that the AC’s busted/not working/not working well enough at GPC.

I have been thinking about what I’m going to do with 6E, though.

To recap, I have three 40K armies:

  • Tau Empire – My first army post-return to the hobby.  It’s about half-painted and rough (since it consists of some of the first minis I’d painted after a ~decade long hiatus).  I’m desperate for an excuse to revisit them.
  • Dark Angels – I think I’ve got something like 7,000 points of painted Dark Angels and probably about as much unpainted, hanging out.
  • Khornate Daemons – A fun, if gimmicky army.  Still in need of some repairs from when they were dropped.

Starting a new army at this point, while probably fun, is simply not an option.  I’m still neck-deep in painting Empire, and the goodies from the Kings of War Kickstarter are going to start materializing before I know it.

  • Tau – Got a shot in the arm with the Rapid Fire fix.  I say “fix,” because I don’t think Rapid Fire ever worked the way it was supposed to (“Hey, I’ve got this gun that shoots really fast, so obviously I can’t move and shoot it!” and the “half range” vs. “12”” thing has always infuriated me)… but I’m not sure.  Their vehicles look like paper now, and everything’s costed at 4E points.  Not the best start for me to learn the new game*.
  • Dark Angels – Easy.  I’m fully painted with this stuff, and Terminators look to be even better in the new book.
  • Daemons – Daemons themselves might be able to work out okay, but my specific list feels like it’ll be a non-starter.  No shooting means I still have trouble dealing with armor.  Hellblades are now a bit more like Heckblades.  Beasts feel less speedy now (but that might not be the base).  I don’t know.

So, Dark Angels it is.



This first list is effectively the list I threw together immediately after the FAQ that fixed our cut-rate equipment issues was released:

1,750 – Deathwing

HQ
Belial – TH/SS
Interrogator Chaplain – Terminator Armour, Combi-Plasmagun

Troops
Deathwing Command Squad – Apothecary, Standard Bearer, TH/SS x2, Lightning Claws x2, Heavy Flamer
Deathwing Squad – TH/SS x2, CML
Deathwing Squad – TH/SS x2, CML
Deathwing Squad – TH/SS x2, CML

Heavy Support
Whirlwind
Whirlwind
Whirlwind

This second list is one I threw together the other day: I don’t expect it’s a great list, but it’s a start:

1,850 – Deathwing & Ravenwing

HQ
Belial – TH/SS
Librarian – Terminator Armour, Combi-Plasmagun

Elite
Venerable Dreadnought – Heavy Flamer, Plasma Cannon

Troops
Deathwing Command Squad – Apothecary, Standard Bearer, TH/SS x2, Lightning Claws x1, Chainfist, CML
Deathwing Squad – TH/SS x2, Lightning Claws x1, CML
Deathwing Squad – TH/SS x2, Lightning Claws x1, CML

Fast Attack
Ravenwing Squad x3 – Plasmagun x2, Meltabombs
– Attack Bike – Heavy Bolter
Ravenwing Squad x3 – Plasmagun x2, Meltabombs
– Attack Bike – Heavy Bolter
Landspeeder – Heavy Flamer, Heavy Bolter

Heavy Support
Whirlwind
Whirlwind

Finally, Casey’s suggested that I give something like this list a spin. I don’t think it’s great (or will be fun to play against), but it’s a goof.

1,850 – Chaos Daemons

HQ
Fateweaver
Bloodthirster

Troops
Blood Horrors x8 – Changeling
Blood Horrors x8

Heavy Support
Daemon Prince – Wings, Mark of Tzeentch, Daemonic Gaze, Bolt of Tzeentch
Daemon Prince – Wings, Mark of Tzeentch, Daemonic Gaze, Bolt of Tzeentch
Daemon Prince – Wings, Mark of Tzeentch, Daemonic Gaze, Bolt of Tzeentch

Allied HQ
Daemon Prince – Wings, Mark of Tzeetch, Sorceror, Warptime

Allied Troops
Thousand Sons x5

* Because that’s what it is: a new game.  If you try to play 6E like it’s 5E, you’re not going to be very good at it.  I probably have a longer kvetch about that in me at some point soon.

The biggest change in 6E

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If you’re still making noises about Allies: stop.  I’m tired of hearing people complain about/try to break the rules.

Much more significantly, it’s not the biggest rule change in the new book.

“Bigger Games”, page 110:
This being the case, if you’re playing a game of 2,000 points or more, you can take an additional primary detachment. This gives you access to up to six choices each from elites, fast attack and heavy support, up to four HQ choices, a massive potential of up to twelve troops choices, and additional allied detachment and an additional fortification.

This is huge.  It means 2,000 point games are explicitly not in the range of default game sizes.  It means crazy shit like 8 HQ choices in a 2,000 Space Wolf army.  It means I could drop over 50% of my points on HQs in my Daemon army.